by Shae Ford
Kael grit his teeth when the second half of Kyleigh’s loop flattened him again — followed closely by a torrent of her furious swears. What in blazes were you thinking? You could’ve killed him!
“That was the plan,” Kael said back. The memory of the dragon’s panicked stare hung behind his eyes for a moment before he shoved it away. “I won’t set him free. I won’t risk loosing him on the Kingdom. He’s a monster, Kyleigh —!”
He is not a monster!
Her thoughts burned hot between his ears, bolstered by a roar. Kael held on with all of his might as she whipped around and went tearing off after the black dragon’s trail — swearing with every beat of her wings.
She was mad! It was completely and utterly insane, to go chasing after the dragon — especially since they’d very nearly been scorched. When he said as much, she replied with something that could’ve made a pirate blush.
“Fine! Go on, then,” Kael said back. “I’d love another crack at him.”
What if I cracked your skull on an ice cap, whisperer? Would you love that?
“You wouldn’t —”
I most certainly would.
Finally, Kael had reached his wit’s end. “What in Kingdom’s name has gotten into you? You’re being completely —”
All at once, Kyleigh’s body flipped upside-down, and Kael wasn’t ready for it. He felt the pull on the insides of his ears as the world spun; his lungs slammed against his ribs. She moved with more force than ever before, and it caught him by surprise.
The spines jerked from his grasp and his legs clamped down upon the empty air. Wind tore at him, tried to rip his face from his flesh. The weight of his armor sent him plummeting at a speed he was sure his bones couldn’t withstand. Somehow, Kael managed to twist his body around to catch one look at Kyleigh before the clouds swallowed her up.
She was nothing more than a shadow behind the clouds: a creature with wings spread wide and claws bared for the fight. Her body twisted onto its back just in time to meet the fall of a second creature. When they struck, the noise split the air like a thunderclap. Kyleigh’s furious roar clashed with another.
In half a second, Kael had fallen too far. All he could see now was the bottom of a starless night — and the glowing ocean awaited him with opened jaws.
All of his muscles tensed as the warrior in him braced for the fall. He could do nothing to stop himself from striking the waves, and he couldn’t bear to look. Kael shut his eyes, teeth clenched together as the wind tried to rip him apart …
In the instant before his body struck, a pair of claws wrapped around him. He tensed to keep their grip from shattering his ribs and held on tightly as Kyleigh swooped him upwards.
“What happened? What was that?” Kael said, his heart still screaming.
Before she could reply, a chorus of hums filled the air above them. There were three different voices: one carried a steady tone while the other two fell above and below it. Together, they formed a perfect song.
A gap broke within the clouds, and Kael saw them: monstrous, winged shadows circling tightly overhead. They moved like wraiths caught between the worlds of the living and the dead — beings that paid no heed to the earth’s laws.
“More dragons?” Kael hissed.
Kyleigh didn’t reply. Her tail curled tightly beneath her and slowly, she turned — moving away from the Kingdom’s shores and deeper into the shadowed sea beyond.
The dragons circled hungrily. Their song had risen to such a height that Kael’s ears began to ring. Just when he feared they would burst, another voice silenced them.
It crackled across the other three, the labor of a storm about to break. Kael was expecting the resounding boom at its end, but it still made him jump — and it drove the other three voices into silence.
“What’s happening?” was all he could manage to say. His heart was crammed so tightly against the floor of its cage that he could barely feel it beating
And that was before Kyleigh’s thought filled his ears with a heavy sigh:
We’ve been captured.
*******
Kael couldn’t believe it. By this point, he was entirely fed up with being captured — and they had absolutely no time for it. “Whatever you did to them, just apologize. Maybe they’ll let us go.”
I didn’t do anything — honestly, she said when he twisted to frown at her.
It was difficult to sound severe while he dangled from her claws, but he glared and tried his best: “I doubt that very seriously. I don’t think you could put a toe across any border without stirring up some sort of trouble.”
She inclined her head. True. But I’ve never been across their borders. I’ve only dreamt of it.
“Well, what if you only thought you were dreaming? What if you sleep-flew over here and wreaked all sorts of havoc — it isn’t funny!” he snapped over her rumbling laughs. “We’re in enough trouble as it is. We don’t have time to be anybody’s prisoners.”
You can’t accuse a woman of sleep-flying and expect her not to laugh. Dragons are rather protective of their territories, she said when she saw the words forming upon his lips. I’m sure that’s all this is. We crossed into their skies without permission, and they’re going to make us land and sulk on the ground for a few days. Once we’ve been sufficiently shamed, I’m sure they’ll let us go.
Kael hoped she was right.
But at the same time, he doubted it.
The dark of the clouds and the howling winds eventually broke — giving way to an endless sky. Countless orbs of light filled the space above them. There were so many worlds stretched across the night that there was hardly a patch of black between them. The ice caps thinned a bit — no longer the massive islands they’d been before, but shards of glass balanced atop the sea. Their flesh seemed to wink at the sky as the waves rocked them.
And the stars winked back.
The dragons’ song above them rose and fell in blusters: it grew so slowly that Kael could feel the chilled bumps rising across his arms before his ears even caught the song. The dragons’ voices would swell to fill the air, trembling with such force at their height that Kael’s limbs sagged beneath them. But just when he began to fear that his bones would crack, the song faded — slipping back like the tide from the shore.
Kyleigh’s wingbeats stiffened each time the dragons sang, and Kael knew it had nothing to do with the cold. The next time the song came, he pressed his hands against her scales and concentrated on listening for their voices.
The song struck Kyleigh’s ears and their words trailed like ghosts beneath the tremors: Fly on, halved one … fly to the Motherlands … do not stop.
When he tried to ask Kyleigh what the Motherlands were, his mind struck a wall. She was keeping him out on purpose. There was something she didn’t want him to hear, something she didn’t want him to know. Now when he tried to listen, the dragon’s song was as cryptic as it’d been before.
He didn’t know what she was hiding, but he knew it would do him no good to argue with her now. He would wait until they’d landed.
A great, black mountain rose from the sea before them. The mountain was a hole carved from the starry horizon — a shadow that seemed untouched by the world. It was as if every pale strand of starlight had died upon its shores. Kael doubted if even the sun could warm it.
The crackling thunder came again. The dragons’ shadows peeled off the back of his neck, and Kael watched as they pulled ahead. Their great wings carried them swiftly onward, until the mountain’s shadow swallowed them.
He was so busy watching them that he didn’t notice another shadow coming until it’d already passed. It flew much higher than the others: drifting slowly across the stars, swerving on monstrous wings in a pattern that made him dizzy to watch. It followed in the path of the other three, disappearing into the shadowed land.
A space of rolling hills surrounded the mountain — a whole region’s worth. Kyleigh didn’t carry them far beyond the shore. No sooner was
there earth beneath their feet than she landed. Kael slid off her back and into a patch of stringy, knee-high grass. He was surprised to find grass this far north, and even more surprised at how soft it was. But there was little time to wonder.
“What’s going on, Kyleigh?” he said as she slid into her human form. “You’ve obviously done something to make the dragons angry. And I have a right to …”
His words trailed away when she turned to the stars, and he saw the deep, jagged wound that scraped across her face. It carved through her skin and marred her features. Had it not been for the blaze in her one un-swollen eye, he didn’t think he would’ve recognized her.
“Come here.”
She stood surprisingly still while he healed her. The black dragon’s claws had carved gouges into her flesh. He had to seal her skin from its root. Inside the deepest cut, he healed a crack that scraped across her cheekbone. But though her wounds were horrible, she’d still been lucky.
“If he’d gotten you across the throat, you’d be dead. You do realize that, don’t you?”
She said nothing. Her eyes stayed locked upon his, their fires unnaturally calm.
Kael’s hands fell to his sides. He held her gaze, hoping she might be able to see everything he felt — all of the fear, all of the worry … all of the things he couldn’t quite put into words.
He hoped she understood why he couldn’t free the black dragon. He hoped she could see that he would do anything to protect her.
“I couldn’t risk it. It wasn’t worth —”
Her lips pressed against his, silencing them. She clutched the back of his neck and brought him in closer; she wrapped her other arm about his waist.
Through the heat that flooded beneath his skin, Kael thought to be surprised. He was certain she’d be furious with him for trying to kill the black dragon, or angry about being captured — or already planning some daring escape. There was no anger or worry in her touch, but there was … something.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, trying to figure out what it was that had her pressed against him — that made her touch so firm and desperate. Her hand slipped down his neck and across his chest. A calmness washed over him, spurred on by her touch. It doused his fear and snuffed his worries out. Soon there was nothing left but warmth and silence.
When she pulled away, there was something strange in her look — something out of place. But before he could figure out what it was, she spoke:
“I know things seem a bit grim right now, but we’ll sort it out. Trust me.”
Kael felt his head bob up and down. He did trust her — he trusted her completely. He hardly noticed the fall of her smile as she slid back into his arms.
Things suddenly didn’t seem so grim.
CHAPTER 22
Witchcraft
The night passed quickly, nothing more than black slivers between the patchwork of her dreams. There were a few restless minutes when Elena feared that Aerilyn might get them lost. It wasn’t difficult to imagine that she might wake to find herself several miles from where they meant to go. But the mindrot left her with little choice.
A pale dawn gave way to early morning. The exhaustion drained from Elena’s limbs, replaced by the cold nothingness she’d come so accustomed to over the past several weeks. She remembered how the cold had wrapped around her in the second the arrow flew, how it made everything else seem small. In that moment, she’d felt as if she had nowhere else to go.
She’d felt as if the world was at an end — and she’d seen no reason to move.
Now, she was beginning to regret it.
Despite Aerilyn’s attempts to bind it, the wound beneath her shoulder had swollen considerably. Elena swore she could feel it growing by the minute, festering against the little pieces of grit and splinters the arrow had left behind. Soon she could feel her heartbeats radiating from its middle: their tremors shook her stomach, her ribs. They climbed up her throat to pound inside her head.
The world shook so fiercely after a while that Elena had no choice but to close her eyes. She leaned heavily against the back of Aerilyn’s shoulder as Braver plodded on, clinging to the faint sounds of the woods.
Finally, she woke to a gasp.
“What …?” Elena couldn’t finish the question. She breathed in a lungful of thick, blackened air and wound up choking on her words.
Aerilyn’s hand was clamped tightly around her wrist. She kicked Braver into a trot and Elena tried to stay conscious as the world bounced past her. Tall, spiny trees stood over their heads. The ground beneath them was littered in stone. Clouds of smoke hung so thickly between the trees that it turned the land beyond to haze.
It wasn’t until Aerilyn led them to the crest of a hill that Elena realized where they were.
She saw the mouth of a large, glittering lake stretched out before them. And her heart froze inside her chest. “What are you doing? Get back — they’ll see us!”
She lunged for the reins and nearly toppled when the movement swirled her vision. Aerilyn’s grip tightened around her arm. “We aren’t in any danger. I don’t think there’s anyone left to see us.”
Her voice was oddly quiet. Elena blinked against the pain and followed her gaze across the lake, where she found the source of the smoke.
A black cloud thickened the air above the village. The gates were smashed; the walls still glowed with embers. Charred skeletons were all that remained of the shops and homes. A pile of corpses lay at the water’s edge. Their gold-tinged armor glinted weakly through the haze as it caught the morning light.
“Midlan,” Aerilyn breathed. “The King must’ve attacked Lakeshore … but why? What could he possibly have to gain by killing D’Mere?”
Elena wasn’t sure. After all the plotting she’d done, the Countess more than deserved to be sacked. But she doubted if the King had ever found about her plan: all of the evidence of her betrayal now lay frozen at the mountains’ top — where Crevan would never find it.
Though Elena tried to concentrate, her pain was too great. Her vision blurred with every throb of her wound. The castle sat below them — empty, with charred rings around the sockets of its windows. More gold-tinged bodies lay scattered before its gates.
Something had burst through the doors and snapped the monstrous beam at its middle. Smoke wept from the collapsed portions of the roof. D’Mere’s guards lay dead throughout the courtyard … but there weren’t as many bodies as she thought there would be. In fact, only a handful seemed to have come out to face Midlan at all.
It was … strange …
“You need a healer.”
Aerilyn’s voice cut sharply across her ears. Elena blinked through the darkness and struggled to fix her eyes upon the shore. “No, I’m fine. We ought to get as far away from here … there could be others …”
“I’m taking you to Pinewatch.”
“No … please …”
“We’re going to get you a healer, and that’s final,” she said as she turned Braver from the hill. “It’ll do you absolutely no good to argue.”
Elena’s eyes swam with the motion of the turn. Braver passed a gap in the trees and for one brief moment, she caught a glimpse of the castle’s shores.
They were littered with bodies, dozens upon dozens of them — each swollen taut against the sun. Village men and castle guards lay beside others: men from the desert and the seas. But one corpse among them made Elena’s blood run cold.
It washed up against some wooded debris and rocked with the slap of the waves. Though its face was pressed into the sand, she knew from its size and its crop of stark white hair that it had to be a giant. She was certain of it.
Pain closed her eyes and dulled the edges of her mind. Still, the giant’s body hung before her as the darkness rushed in, rocking back and forth against the shores of her memory … haunting her with its warning.
*******
By the time Elena woke, it was nearly evening. Her eyes opened to the noise of another gasp,
and she found herself on the outskirts of Pinewatch.
She’d traveled this road so often that she would’ve known it by its bumps and dips — which turned out to be a very good thing, because the village itself was unrecognizable.
Pinewatch had grown since the last she’d seen it. They were a mile from where the heart of the village stood and Braver was already picking his way through people. Most lived in tents, but several had half-built homes on the land beside them. The noise of hammers filled the air. The smells of cook fires and resin hung thickly in the pockets between houses.
Aerilyn’s pace slowed as she gazed around the tented village. “There are so many of them. What are they all doing here?”
She nudged Braver towards the sound of haggling. Elena slid forward and held on tightly to the saddle when Aerilyn jumped down. She dragged the reins to the edge of the village, where several merchants had set up camps.
Aerilyn cut a straight line to one man in particular: a merchant Elena recognized immediately as a fletcher from the southern forest. She kept her head down as Aerilyn dragged Braver over to him.
“What are you doing in my village, Foster?”
“Bleeding coin,” he snapped as he tied a package for one of his customers. No sooner had he bound one set of goods than a woman stepped up with another.
Aerilyn pursed her lips as her eyes cut down the line of people waiting for his help. “Really? It looks as if you’re doing rather well.”
“Things are selling, if that’s what you mean. But the price to set up a trade in Pinewatch is thrice what it used to be. I can barely keep my tunic at the rate that blasted cook is charging,” Foster moaned, and his eyes slid over to the coin the woman had set on the counter.
At his look, she begrudgingly set a few more.
“Thank you, madam! You’ve helped a poor old shopkeeper stay open a few days more,” Foster called after her. Then he slipped Aerilyn a wink.
